Taliban chief behind Malala attack ‘killed by US drone’

THE Pakistan Taliban chief who ordered the failed assassination of Malala Yousafzai has been targeted and believed killed in a US drone strike in eastern Afghanistan.

Afghan officials said Mullah Fazlullah, one of the world’s most wanted militant leaders, had been killed in Kunar Province, but Pakistan security sources said his death had not yet been verified.

News of the attack came as Afghanistan waited to see if an unprecedented three-day Afghan Taliban ceasefire would hold over the Eid holiday.

Fazlullah became notorious for ordering a string of attacks, including the 2014 massacre of 151 pupils at an army school in Peshawar and the attempt on the life of then 14-year-old Yousafzai. Afghanistan’s defence ministry said Fazlullah had been “killed in a joint Afghan and US operation”, while a spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan said it had struck “a senior leader of a designated terrorist organisation”.

The militant leader has wrongly been claimed dead before and a Pakistan security source said his death was as yet “not possible to verify”.

Fazlullah, who was believed to be in his mid-forties, has led the Tehrik-etaliban Pakistan (TTP) since 2013 and had a $5m (£3.7m) reward for information on his head.

The US state department said the TTP has “demonstrated a close alliance with al-qaeda” and had given explosives training to Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber.